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Reposted by Heather Bryant

Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 20h

For National Disability Employment Awareness Month at @motherjones.com, I spoke to four disabled federal workers who were laid off about how their old jobs were very accessible—and what the federal government loses out on by having fewer disabled employees. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The human costs of Trump's war on government

For many disabled workers, federal jobs were decent, human, and accommodating: everything the president hates.

www.motherjones.com

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 1d

According to this administration, Portland is burning to the ground. Can someone point that out in any of the live webcams around the city?

katu.com/weather/came...
portlandweather.com/all-cameras
www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/un...
www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/w...
www.windy.com/-Webcams-Pie...

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 1d

It feels like the amount of spam and grift attempts, especially through phone calls and SMS, have skyrocketed this year. And the messaging has gotten creepier and more offensive from the standpoint of the psychology and manipulation they are using to attempt to get people to take the bait.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 5d

That feeling when the USPS is asking for us to help fund cancer research while this administration has cut numerous programs and grants for cancer research.

USPS homepage with Breast Cancer stamps and a call to action to "Help Fund the Fight: Purchase the Breast Cancer Research semipostal stamp and help fund research to fund a cure for breast cancer."

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Reposted by Heather Bryant

Damon Kiesow @damon.kiesow.net · 11d

Most of the news media is still fighting the last war: production and distribution, instead of the current war: defending truth.

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Reposted by Heather Bryant

michael röbbins @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social · 12d

repeating the phrase "full books" as I slam my head against my desk until I pass out

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 13d

The latter can get someone farther than ever before, but the former is a critical function and check against errors, manipulation, control over the tools, attempts to constrain free speech, expression, education, communication and other civil rights.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 13d

It is actually important societally to be able to differentiate between someone who possesses actual skills, abilities and expertise versus the technology-aided appearance of skills, abilities and expertise.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 19d

Hey, remember that time the Washington Post killed their already planned election endorsement at the behest of Bezos who was cozying up to Trump and then a bunch of people lectured everyone to not cancel their subscriptions as a means of expressing that they didn't approve of the capitulation?

Screenshot of Washington Post homepage filled with stories about Jimmy Kimmel

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 20d

Non-profit news organizations should really be operating under the assumption that their 501(c)(3) status could be yanked at any time. All it's going to take is one significant investigation or viral story before their attention turns that way.

Plan proactively. Don't count on norms or bureaucracy.

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Reposted by Heather Bryant

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 20d

Freelance illustration gigs drying up. Ad agencies using Midjourney instead of hiring human artists. Costume design turned over to AI wholesale. Good work vanishing.

These are the stories of working visual artists, who describe losing jobs, wages, and hope as their clients and bosses embrace AI.

Artists are losing work, wages, and hope as bosses and clients embrace AI

Visual artists, illustrators and graphic designers share their stories about how AI is being used to lower wages, degrade work and even replace it altogether, in this installment of AI Killed My Job.

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 21d

I'm taking a class about information communities and information-seeking behavior and models and every time I read a new assigned reading I end up whispering under my breath "why the f--- wasn't this taught in j-school" repeatedly. I hope it's being taught now.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 22d

First time reading this person and, maybe I'm jaded, but I was floored by this sentence. This is just recklessly, almost painfully, naive. The post, while making some good points, falls apart trying to create equivalences when there is significant asymmetry both contemporarily and historically.

Screenshot of text: One would hope that, now that both parties have been touched by political violence many times over, the experience would make both more likely to respond to acts against the other side with open hearts (or to feel regret for past responses), since everyone has been here and knows how awful it is.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 22d

It's gone past enraging to comical nihilism to see so many supposedly astute white guy columnist types still trying to make it a both sides are equally bad situation.

On the one hand: a bonfire. The other: an entire apartment building on fire. Those guys: Well, both sides started a fire so

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Reposted by Heather Bryant

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 22d

This is out-Sovieting the Soviet Union. "You are free to express any opinion at all as long as it's the right one, and the consequences for all the others will be severe, and ratting out is an important part of our free society."

Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 22d

they're going around and documenting flags that aren't at half-mast for Charlie Kirk

Vance Patrick
@vance_gop

Hey @Chase, why isn't your Barclay Circle Branch
in Rochester Hills, MI complying with federal and
state orders to lower the flag in honor of Charlie
Kirk? You've had since Wednesday to lower it...

Adam Gillen
@Adam_M_Gillen

I went on a personal crusade around Hastings
and got several flags lowered. Had to have others
join me in getting the Hastings ACE Hardware to
lower theirs, they said "Lowering the flag would be
making a political statement." Before they finally
caved under the pressure.
7:58 PM • 9/14/25

Donna Harvey
@DonnaHarve55152

This is a Shell gas station in Goldsboro NC. Who
didn't bother to lower the flag...

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 22d

When the only lever of accountability the audience has for a news organization is to cancel their subscription, they should not be discouraged or prevented from doing so. If the desire is feedback in another form, that form must exist beyond social media posts.

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Reposted by Heather Bryant

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 24d

The fact that Matthew Dowd lost his job for pointing out Charlie Kirk’s hate speech, while Brian Kilmeade openly suggests we should euthanize the homeless and there is zero outrage, shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 26d

If you look at the publish date and descriptions, some of these were up before his death was even confirmed. One "book" includes in its description: "If you've been asking yourself did Charlie Kirk get shot, is Charlie Kirk dead...this book is for you."

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 26d

The gunman hasn't been caught and the investigation is barely 24 hours old. If you look up the authors, two don't exist, one has another obviously generated book and the fourth claims bylines in real magazines but does not appear in those magazine archives.

Author page showing one other title, a book about last week's Powerball jackpot win.

Author page for claimed author stating professional experiences that cannot be found online, including supposed bylines at the Atlantic and the New Republic.

Search results for Paul Zimmer on the Atlantic showing 0 author results.

Search results for Paul Zimmer on the New Republic showing 0 author results.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 26d

There are already generated books available on Amazon claiming to be "deeply researched" accounts of Charlie Kirk's death yesterday.

Search results showing 4 new titles published in the last 24 hours on his death.

Book titled "Charlie Kirk: The shooting of Charlie Kirk and the Battle for America's Future"

Book titled "The Charlie Kirk Shooting: A Nation on Edge"

Book titled "The Legacy of Charlie Kirk: A Biography of His Rise, His Movement, and His Tragic Death"

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 27d

When we say "there is no place for violence," history says otherwise. History shouts and screams otherwise. We need to understand what can possibly be different now that could change whether we follow the same patterns that have filled the centuries before. www.hbcompass.io/this-has-alw...

This has always been the place

While it is entirely true from an aspirational perspective, the phrase "there's no place for violence in politics" is a demonstrably, wildly, false and ahistorical notion. We are a nation neck-deep in...

www.hbcompass.io

Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 28d

Getting emailed multiple AI summaries for the same call is getting real damn annoying. It seems like people have it set to send to all other attendees or something. Leave that for the meeting host to manage, please.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · Sep 1

Unions don't just protect a single worker, they protect and empower entire families. I have never had a union job, but my career has greatly benefitted from my spouse's union job. I've been able to take risks, do jobs that were longer-term investments, and negotiate harder because of the stability.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · Aug 25

Sarah Palin walked so JD Vance could lurch.

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · Aug 23

They smell fantastic, but the wax was temperamental so the surface isn't as smooth or pretty as I wanted. I thought about listing them as "imperfect" candles but then kept second-guessing myself to the point where I deleted the listing.

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